Quote:
Originally Posted by ssiguy
The problem with odometer readings is that they may not reflect where people put the mileage. Someone may drive very little on a daily basis but takes that yearly trip to Arizona or Florida and gets screwed.
I appreciate that gas revenues are falling as cars become more fuel efficient and with more battery cars entering the market which is why they should follow Sask's lead and bring in a flat yearly charge for electric vehicles of the average per-car revenue Translink makes on gas taxes. EV, due to their weight, disproportionately damage the roads and they use the same roads/transit as everyone else and should get away scott-free because they are wealthy enough to afford an EV.
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A person living in White Rock or Abbotsford can easily avoid paying both transit taxes and government taxes by just filling up in Blaine. No system is perfect, but it doesn't to be linear and it can also be capped.
A base charge by vehicle weight makes sense, and a regressive distance-weighted cost with a low ceiling is a pretty good alternative to a gas tax that is ultimately more fair than the current model.
Combine that with an immediate removal of the translink tax on gas resulting in an immediate reduction in fuel prices and I'm pretty sure you can placate voters. Call it revenue neutral and you've got a winner.
You could even do a trial run which
ONLY applies to EVs for the first 2 years keeping the majority happy as the feel like they're sticking it to those "stinkin' rich Tesla owners" gettin' away with not paying road taxes and still getting to drive in the HOV (can we remove that perk, please?). Then, when you've worked out the kinks, apply it to all car owners and reduce the price at the pump by taking off gas taxes making ICE owners temporarily happy.